Emil Kang is a cultural strategist and institutional advisor working at the intersection of the arts, philanthropy, education, and public life. Until 2024, he served as Program Director for Arts and Culture at the Mellon Foundation, the largest arts funder in the United States. Prior to that role, he spent over a decade leading Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was President and Executive Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He serves on the National Council on the Arts, to which he was appointed by President Obama in 2012.